Full Description
The psalms are masterful poems that echo the tenors of community life and worship as they project the scope of the human drama from lament to praise. They chart a profound and vital relationship with God, with all the ups and downs that this relationship implies. Konrad Schaefer's concise commentary on the psalms relates their poetic elements while respecting their historical context and traditional use in the liturgy and, more importantly, their ultimate value as a springboard to private and communal prayer.
In Psalms, Schaefer focuses on the structure of each psalm, its dramatic plot, the modes of discourse, the rhetorical features, and the effective use of imagery to portray theology and the spiritual life. Schaefer portrays each poem's inner dynamic to acquaint readers with the poet and the community which prayed and preserved the composition, allowing the believer to transpose it in the contemporary situation.
Psalms is for those who would like to pray the psalms with more intensity of meaning; for those willing to touch the biblical world and taste of its fruit in the Word of God; and for devoted readers of the Bible to become more expert as it helps experts become more devoted.
Chapters are Introduction," "Book One (Psalms 1-41)," "Book Two (Psalms 42-72)," "Book Three (Psalms 73-89)," "Book Four (Psalms 90-106)," and "Book Five (Psalms 107-150)."
Contents
CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Imagery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xii
Repetition and Parallelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
The Psalms in Context and Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Shifting Address and Modes of Discourse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
A School of Prayer .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxv
Disease, Death, and the Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxxii
Prayer and the Curse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxviii
Book One, Psalms 1-41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Book Two, Psalms 42-72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Book Three, Psalms 73-89 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Book Four, Psalms 90-106 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Book Five, Psalms 107-150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Superscriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Prehistory of the Psalter . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Literary Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
For Further Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Index of Scriptural References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
General Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Index of Hebrew Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393